Weekly Rewind #13

Unlucky for some but it’s the 13th Weekly Rewind. This Sunday finds me using the free wi-fi at a pub in the exotic climbs of Wigan, Lancashire. Technically it’s not Wigan it’s a small town nearby called Orrell, but since most of you probably don’t even know where Wigan is, I figured I’d keep it simple I’ve just enjoyed a lovely steak and I’m now sipping my tea and drawing strange looks from the other pub patrons as I sit glued to my laptop, not literally, but close enough. I’m sure I’ll draw some even stranger stares when I put on my HUGE headphones and begin editing the next Software Freedom Law Show in a minute. I’ll begin with a quick recap of the week, before explaining what brings me to deepest Lancashire. Trust me, you won’t be able to guess, and it’s not the pies.

On Monday we recorded Linux Outlaws as usual and had a lot of fun. We had 107 people in the IRC room at one point and it’s a great experience getting instant feedback from listeners. I’m really enjoying the live aspect of the show and it wets my appetite a bit for radio. I’ve been toying with the idea of doing a music show with live performances and so on for a while. Perhaps I’ll even be lucky enough to do that on the radio someday, who knows. I’ve always had a face for radio that’s for sure. We also recorded an extra show on Tuesday aimed at explaining Linux to newcomers. I’m not sure quite how successful we were in that, the discussion got complicated by the politics of the FLOSS world. Hopefully someone will find it useful though. That should be out in due course, don’t know exactly when just yet but I’ll be sure to let you know. Episode 90 of the regular show was released on Wednesday night, mainly due to all Fab’s hard work editing it. I dodged that one.

LivTux 🙂

Late Tuesday night I wrote an article about the progress of the Libre.fm project, which has drawn some attention and interesting comments. Then on Wednesday it was off to Liverpool LUG in the evening. We didn’t have a talk planned this month, which was just as well because our room at Liverpool Social Centre was taken over by another group wanting to show a film. We were then kicked out of the nearby pub at 8pm, not because of any bad behaviour but just because they wanted to close. What kind of pub closes at 8pm? “Stop buying things and go home you bastards!!” that’s madness. I arrived late (as is my tradition) and by the time I got there the gang had moved to Wetherspoons in town. Luckily a text message told me their new location and I went to find them… at the wrong Wetherspoons, apparently there’s two, facepalm! I found them eventually though and a good night was had by all.

On Friday the date and venue of Lugradio Live 2009 were finally revealed and I blogged about that. I’ve also been busy working on a couple of articles which I know I keep promising, but the plan is to release the Ubuntu article tomorrow for maximum traffic. Mondays are always the busiest days I find. Must be bored people at work looking for something to do.

Maharishi Mahresh Yogi

So then we come to the weekend. I’m actually in Wigan because I’m doing a course in Transcendental Meditation. Bet you weren’t expecting that. It’s something I’ve been interested in for a while and I’ve even tried Buddhist meditation in the past. I found that really hard and I’m afraid my powers of concentration just weren’t up to it. TM is a little different and doesn’t require the same amount of effort, which sounds right up my street. So here I am, discovering my Zen side in Wigan, who knew. I’ve done 2 classes so far with another 2 to do tonight and tomorrow night. I’ll let you know how it goes next week but so far I feel very relaxed. Anyone who knows me will tell you I’m a ridiculously laid back guy anyway. I have a few hours off before the next session and I’ve brought my laptop in the vain hope of getting some work done. The next SFLS needs some serious editing.

Upcoming:

Next week we’ll be doing Linux Outlaws live on Tuesday night instead of Monday, but it will be at the usual time of 6pm UTC (7pm UK). I’ll be back here in Wigan tomorrow night getting my meditate on you see. I plan to publish this Ubuntu article tomorrow and then move back to Chakra Project to do some more research. A few people have expressed concern at my wanting to review a project still in the alpha stage of development, but rest assured I’ll take that into account. I just think it’s something so different that it warrants a quick look. Not sure what’s planned for later in the week right now, maybe I’ll be too relaxed by then to care, but I doubt it. Right, now I shall get on with some work before trying to achieve a higher state of conciousness. It’s not often you get to use that sentence is it?

When I first saw the picture of that yogi, my first thought was that Richard Stallman has gone even further with his freedom ideology. But meditation… I don’t it was that surprising news 😛 Hopefully you will find the zen. 🙂

Glad you learning Transcendental Meditation. I have been doing TM for years and have nothing but good effect from the twice-daily practice. It reduces stress, keeps me healthy and happy. And it is completely effortless to do, and so simple to learn. Please keep us posted on your progress.

@hanna – Made sense to me, don’t worry about it. No big revelations yet on the Zen front but you never know. It’s Buddhist’s that specialise in Zen so I’m mixing my codes a bit. I’ve studied Buddhism a little as I said, did it while I was in Sri Lanka. I’m full of hidden surprises 🙂

@Alex – There was no Yogic Flying and the instructor even said he doesn’t believe in any that. It’s a breakaway group from the main TM organisation that I’ve been to see. Very interesting, will report more next week.

Good luck with learning Transcendental Meditation. I have two children and they both learned TM, recently. I saw a lot of improvement. Happier, more relaxed, more mature, got along better with the other kids and their fiends. Can’t say enough about how much it helped.